Luis Rubiales, the previous president of the Spanish soccer federation, has been given a restraining order and is prohibited from contacting the player he kissed on the lips last month on the Women’s World Cup, Spain’s National Court stated Friday.
Rubiales appeared in front of Judge Francisco de Jorge and denied any wrongdoing when questioned about kissing Spain participant Jenni Hermoso on the lips throughout the awards ceremony, the state prosecutors’ workplace stated.
After listening to Rubiales, the judge issued the restraining order that prohibits Rubiales from being inside 200 meters (yards) of Hermoso. The state prosecutors had requested for that ban to achieve 500 meters (yards).
The judge rejected the prosecutors’ request to additionally oblige Rubiales to verify in with a courtroom each 15 days in addition to the request by Hermoso’s lawyer to freeze belongings belonging to Rubiales.
Rubiales kissed Hermoso on the lips after Spain beat England to win the Women’s World Cup title on Aug. 20 in Sydney, Australia. He stated she had consented to the kiss, however Hermoso has denied that repeatedly.
Spanish state prosecutors formally accused Rubiales last week of sexual assault and an act of coercion. According to Hermoso, Rubiales pressured her to talk out in his protection instantly after the scandal erupted.
The state prosecutors’ workplace stated Rubiales denied each accusations when answering questions by the judge in an hour-long listening to that was closed to the general public.
Neither Rubiales or his protection lawyer, Olga Tubau, spoke to the media exterior the National Court.
Hermoso’s lawyer, Carla Vall i Duran, stated they had been glad with the listening to.
“We can continue to affirm that the kiss was not consented to, which is what we have said from the very beginning,” Vall i Duran stated. “Thanks to the (images of the kiss), the entire world, the entire country, has been able to observe there was no type of consent. And we are going to prove that in the courtroom.”
The 46-year-old Rubiales lastly folded Sunday below immense stress from authorities and soccer authorities and introduced that he was resigning from his put up as president of the soccer federation. He he had already been provisionally suspended by soccer governing physique FIFA.
De Jorge is finishing up the preliminary investigation into the accusations in opposition to Rubiales, and can then resolve whether or not the case ought to go to trial.
According to a sexual consent regulation handed in Spain final 12 months, Rubiales might face a high-quality or a jail sentence of one to 4 years if discovered responsible of sexual assault. The new law eradicated the distinction between “sexual harassment” and “sexual assault,” sanctioning any non-consensual sexual act.
Hermoso had already given testimony to state prosecutors when she accused Rubiales of sexual assault final week, earlier than she left Spain to affix her Mexican membership, Pachuca.
In the times following the World Cup last, Rubiales stated that the kiss was “mutual” and like one “I could give one of my daughters.”
Hermoso responded by saying that was a lie.
“I felt vulnerable and a victim of an impulse-driven, sexist, out of place act without any consent on my part,” Hermoso stated in a press release posted on social media. “Simply put, I was not respected.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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